“O-oh.”
“Sorry.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “That’s a bit heavy after a long day at work.”
“No! Not at all. It sounds brilliant.”
He smiled. “I picked up some vintage hardbacks at an antique store in the city a few years back. Five volumes. Illustrated. Real leather binding. Gold embossed trim.”
Impressed, my mouth dropped open.
He chuckled. “Yeah. Nice, right? I’ll let you borrow them sometime if, um…” His shoulder went up again. “If you’d like that?”
“I’d love that.” Pressing my palm against my chest didn’t calm the frantic thump underneath. “I promise I’ll take such good care of your books.” The slow way his eyes noticed that movement and locked there only made my heart pound harder.
“You would,” he said. “What wouldn’t be safe in your little hands, Lola?”
Aiden’s tone was gentle. He wasn’t flirting. Why would he be? But the naughtiest thoughts popped into my head.
None of him would be safe from my hands.
I wanted to tear open the neat buttons of his flannel and run my hands over the white T-shirt he wore underneath. He looked so strong. His body would be magnificent.Masculine. I’d beg him to let me crawl into his lap so I could pet him everywhere… Run my fingers through his beard… Kiss him…
Dazed, I stared up at Aiden. “Caramel,” I sighed, twirling a strand of hair around my finger.
A confused chuckle rumbled from deep in his chest. “Sorry?”
I shook myself from the fog of my embarrassing daydream with a nervous laugh. “Caramel is the one thing I can’t cook,” I explained. “I never get it quite right. The sugar always burns.”
I quickly turned away and sucked in an enormous breath, trying to regain some composure. It didn’t work. Nerves slipped out in a humiliating giggle.
Balls.
My palm landed on my forehead. Panic smothered the giddy feeling of imagining a future with the man standing in front of me with a blank look on his face.
I’d promised myself I’d be stronger this time.
“You okay, lov—Lola?”
“Y-yeah! Yeah!” I wheezed. “Totally…totally fine!”
The hopeless romantic still foolishly lurking inside me wanted to pin my unfulfilled dreams of true love on Aiden. Why? The answer wasn’t hard to find. His rough charm and strong arms would shield me from old ghosts—sure, that certainly didn’t hurt. But deeper, beneath all that, I knew it was because Aiden was the first man who’d shown me genuine kindness in a very long time.
I wouldn’t find what I needed rolling in my sheets with this gentle beast—if he’d even have me. I needed to live my life for myself. On my terms. Just…
On my own.
“Well… I guess I’d better, um…” I held up my shopping basket. Yes, it was definitely time to go. “It was lovely catching up with you, Aiden. Thank you again for last night.”
If he said goodbye, I didn’t hear him.
Like a coward, I scurried past, dropped the basket of groceries by the door, and bolted out of the store.
4
He Didn’t See the Possibility
Aiden
The town hall wasa furnace.
